Mk5 Camper project - 1st time transit owner

[Anton2k3]

Wow thats looking great! Do you use a brush to get in to the fiddly bits like around the door handles?

[noobrider]

yeah brush to touch up the od bit but even that levels out and you cant see the strokes. the beauty is that a whole repaint has cost £25 and i have only used a quarter of a tin of paint so far so it will easily do 3 coats, should last a long time too as its designed as a rust proofing paint similar to hammerite

[frank133]

looking good,
I have just seen the video of the paint jobs on other vans,and it does appear to involve a lot of wet and dry in between coats,
But the advantage is less masking up,and you can do it on the front drive,
I still prefer the spray job,not that its better than what you are doing,I think its a little quicker spraying the van in one night ,job done ,I don't use celle anymore,
I like 2pk,I like even better base coat and lacquer,The problem is 2pk paint has risen in price 12% in the last few months,
£60 for two and half liters is a joke.Hope it turns out great for you.

[noobrider]

I suppose the amount of rubbing depends on how smooth a finish you want and how much effort your prepared to put in. There is always an amount of rubbing down with a spray finish so I guess its what you prefer.

Certainly if you haven't painted anything before and don't have somewhere to spray the roller method is pretty good. Its also very cheap. For an 11 year old van spending a few hundred on a respray isn't worth it, £50 and a couple of days work is a better investment.

Anyway, todays task is to start the cream leather trim, the glue arrived this morning and I'll start with the door cards, lets see how we get on with that so then I can do the dash once I've had the practise. Also had the go ahed from the finance director (Mrs) that we can shell out on a walnut dash kit

[noobrider]

todays work had a very late start...4pm so haven't done much but started on the doors with the cream leather. Went on easier than I expected so I'm pretty confident the dash will be as easy.

Here's the drivers door done, not sure about the center of the handle, I may do it all black instead.

[AlanN]

Interesting... how did you do that, any pictures while you did it, does it stretch around the contours easily etc
More please

[noobrider]

Yeah sorry taking pictures while doing it is tricky as you need 2 pairs of hands. I ordered some upholstery spray glue off fleebay and the fake leather has a bit of stretch in it so you start at one end spraying glueing smoothing and stretching all at the same time, a bit of patience but fairly easy.

The glue is hi tack and rapid stick quite heavey duty which in many respects makes the job easier as it will stick the bit you just stretched
by the way the door handle looked really tacky and let the rest of the door down so removed it and painted it black instead

oh and i will paint the inside of the doors and arches blue later

[pollag]

This is looking really really good. Keep up the good work.

[noobrider]

OK todays work was more painting...the roof.... Boy was that a pain all the ridges but its done now and the top bit of the roof I painted a bit thicker than the rest of the van as I only intend on 1 coat up there. The sides of the roof will have 3 coats as per the rest of the body.

Also rough cut the cab carpet, needs a bit more tidying to finish and the Mrs made a nice gear lever trim which is what the seats will look like when they are done with the blue piping.

progress will be a little slower now as its back to work next week so only the evenings to crack on with.

[ake]

This is lookin really good mate but filling the arches never lasts long, they will be bubbling again before you get the interior finished

[noobrider]

Thanks, I intend to do the arches properly at some point but I'm on a tight budget and would like to use the van this summer. I bought 2 tins of rustoleum so that when I take her off the road trip scene next winter I can do all the full repairs and repaint without too much hassle.

The paint goes miles, not even used half a tin yet. I'm just hoping that the hammerite properties of the paint delay the rust worm long enough.

The positive comments from the board really motivate me to do more and more.

[Luke]

i'm liking the interior triming and the gearstick gator looks very pro ive got my dash to do and i'm gonna have a go at something similar

[noobrider]

Prestige Textiles is where you can buy faux leather with a bit of stretch £5 per meter. ebay shop here eBay listings

[noobrider]

Started doing the dashboard tonight.....3 hours later and several attempts it was not as easy as it first looked. Needless to say, I have had to alter the design a fair bit but I'm about halfway there. I'm not taking any pictures of its current state just yet as the light has faded and I managed to get glue everywhere so needs cleaning up. I'll post some tomorrow...I might even get it finished tomorrow.

Lessons learned:
If you are going to cover the dash, do it in more than 1 piece.
Plan the pieces out
Strip the dash first and find all those hidden screws and clips
Clean everything once the dash is in bits as glue, dirt and fingers don't make it easy
use both spray glue and tube glue
Use piping to hide joins

and don't shout at the Mrs no matter how numb she appears and what stupid questions or statements she may make...even if she sticks her bit down before all the folds have been taken out..........

all learnt from experience....you have to make mistakes in order to learn something new

[Smooth Hound]

looking good